Today`s Lesson: Abuse It, Lose It

October 11, 1985

CALL IT A LESSON in how the real world works.

In Real World 101, some students in Broward County take a privilege -- permission to wear shorts in school -- and test the system. They try to determine just how short shorts can get before they become belts.

In Real World 102 they discover that the authorities who allegedly run the system can be pushed only so far. Then the fogies rebel and move to toughen up the dress code.

The students cry out that they should be allowed to wear anything that strikes their fancy. The fogies march on the School Board and insist that all fancies must be covered.

A platoon of principals protests that provocative outfits are disruptive, distracting and an open invitation to a flu epidemic. Board members, reluctant to get into a classroom clothing controversy, acquiesce. The agree that shorts should be banned.

While painful at the moment, the lesson will be valuable when students venture into the real real world, a hotbed of oppressive rules and regulations imposed by those who run the marketplace.

In most areas of that marketplace, employers insist that business runs better in a businesslike atmosphere. They frown on shower clogs and cutoffs. They fire the people who show up in them.

Schools are in the business of teaching. It is easier to teach if children do not turn the classroom into a skin show or a forum for unsolicited fashion statements.

The ban on shorts, which should be formally approved at the next School Board meeting, will provide another valuable lesson.